Its vice president had expressed himself, Turkey had summoned the Italian ambassador, but the Turkish president had never replied to the words spoken by Mario Draghi who replied at the press conference to the question on the sofa-gate that had concerned the president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Today the reply arrived: “The declaration of the Italian prime minister was a total rudeness, a total rudeness.” The same Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, quoted by Anadolu, said it during an event at the Turkish Presidential National Library. at the end of the speech he added: «Before saying such a thing to Tayyip Erdogan – he added – you must know your story, but we have seen that you do not know it. You are a person who has been nominated, not elected. ‘ With his statements “Draghi has unfortunately damaged” the development of “Turkey-Italy relations”. The response to Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who a week ago called him “Dictator”, served and reopens the wound of the Sofà-gate case.
The reconstruction
The case arose on April 7, during the meeting in Ankara between the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for which she was not prepared. a chair as for the two men. Von der Leyen initially remained standing, then found a place on a sofa almost 4 meters away. The controversy in the face of the images explodes and the Italian Prime Minister Draghi, the next day, makes statements that know of accusation at the press conference: «I absolutely do not agree with Erdogan’s behavior towards President Von der Leyen, I think it was not appropriate. I was very sorry for the humiliation that Von der Leyen had to endure. The consideration to be made is that with these dictators who, however, need to collaborate, or rather to cooperate, one must be frank in expressing the difference of views, behaviors, visions, but ready to cooperate for the interests of one’s own country”. The “right balance” mentioned by Draghi, however, did not please the Turkish president at all.
All answers from Turkey
Turkey, after having summoned the Italian ambassador to Ankara, had already requested an “apology” from Mario Draghi. But only through the words of Vice President Fuat Oktay on Twitter: “I condemn Prime Minister Draghi’s brazen and scandalous statements – he tweeted – about our president who for all his life has been in the interests of his country and his nation, he opposed to every form of fascism and patronage and won every election with great confidence on the part of the people ». The head of communication of the Turkish presidency, on the other hand, had defined Draghi as an “nominated” as opposed to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, elected with 52% of the votes: «He exceeded the limits and defined our president as dictator. Words that have no place in democracy, spoken with a style to be condemned. If someone is looking for a dictator then look at the history of Italy ». The ultra-conservative leader Devlet Bahceli, of the Nationalist Movement (MHP) party, had even accused Draghi’s speech of conveying “a secret admiration for Mussolini.” And now with the words of Erdogan himself it seems more difficult to mend the diplomatic rift between Italy and Turkey.
The statements of Ursula von der Leyen
“What happened in Ankara will never happen again.” After a week of frost for the “Sofagate” in Turkey, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen also gave her opinion on the case on April 12, when she met the President of the European Council Charles Michel. The president of the European Commission wanted to set the record straight once and for all, while at the same time trying to dissolve the disagreements due to the lack of reaction of the Belgian politician, who during the visit to Erdogan remained seated in an armchair next to the Turkish leader without utter a verb while the German president was relegated to the couch. A friction that had clouded the image of Union diplomacy, but the clarifying meeting that took place at the Berlaymont building resolved the frost as declared by the spokesman of the community executive Eric Mamer: “The cooperation between von der Leyen and Michel will continue in the interest of the EU and citizens “.